Weekly Wrap Up: Aug 7

SWTOR F2P

            Bioware has announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic, which launched back in late December, is going free-to-play this fall.  This was a hugely anticipated game before its release; one that many said had the potential to compete against the incredibly popular World of Warcraft.  Unfortunately it never achieved the install base that many expected for it and also began losing players rather quickly.  In an effort to change things and turn this game into the pillar of success that EA and Bioware envisioned for it they have decided to eliminate the cost of entry.  Starting this fall if you are even remotely interested in the game you can download it and play all 8 classes for free all the way up to level 50.  There is, however, "game play restrictions that limit game options and access to certain game content".  If you want complete access to absolutely everything including all the new content on its way that was revealed back at E3 then you will have to pay a subscription fee of $15 a month.  If you are already a player in The Old Republic or choose to hop in now then you will be rewarded with Cartel Coins which are a new currency system that is being implemented to accommodate in-game purchases thus allowing Bioware to make money off of its free-to-play users by providing them with better weapons and such for a price.  Whether you are still playing SWTOR, left it a while ago or never tried it this is some great news and as a fan of KOTOR who wasn’t willing to drop $60 plus $15 per month for this game I am excited to try it once it goes free-to-play this fall.

List of rewards for those who already have the game can be found here: http://www.swtor.com/free  

Cold Stream out now on 360

            This past Friday Left 4 Dead 2’s DLC pack titled Cold Stream became available on Xbox Live.  As I’ve mentioned in weeks past the add-on includes the remaining 4 campaigns from the original L4D (one of them was already released for free) as well as a brand new campaign called Cold Stream which was originally designed by a fan on the PC.  All of this is included for just $7 or 560MSP depending on how you prefer to look at it.

Edit: Once again I screwed up my L4D2 facts, turns out the 1 map that I referred to as free was released separately  for free on PC but was bundled in with The Sacrifice on the 360 meaning that you have to pay $7 to get it. Sorry.

Witcher devs go Cyberpunk

            CD Projekt Red, the creators of The Witcher 1&2, are working on a new game called Cyberpunk.  It is based off of a pen-and-paper role-playing game called Cyberpunk 2020.  The team states that they are looking to offer a great deal of customization to your main character and that they are looking to make your decisions about your character tie into and impact your story.  The game will primarily be set in Night City, California, which is apparently a prominent location from the table top game, but your actions and the story will impact the world on a global level.  The game sounds interesting but nothing real has been shown off yet since it is still early in development.  For fans of the tabletop game there is even more good news as a new version of the game is also in the works.   

Army of three

            The Army of Two series is getting its third major instalment next March titled Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel.  EA Montreal, which was responsible for creating the first two games, will not be designing the 3^rd chapter.  Instead it will be handled by Dead Space creators Visceral Games, giving them quite a bit on their plate since they also have Dead Space 3 coming out next year.  The game will run on the Frostbite 2 engine which powered games like Battlefield 3 and Need for Speed: The Run, which is great.  In news that isn’t so great (or at least isn’t so great in my opinion) the game, which is set in Mexico where you are trying to put an end to a drug war, will no longer star series protagonists Salem and Rios.  Instead you will control Alpha & Bravo, which is just a pair of generic and dumb names.  The goal for the new game is also to set a more mature and gritty tone, which to me is the exact opposite of what I want from the series.  The first Army of Two game was filled with mindless over the top action and I really enjoyed it for that.  The second one, which featured improved combat ended up being less fun and a major let down because the gameplay was consistently interrupted by very poorly executed morality moments in an attempt to make the game more mature that ended up running the experience.

3 pieces of Mass Effect 3 news

            Mass Effect 3 is getting its first piece of story based DLC, since the day 1 add-on that included a new Prothean squadmate.  The new pack is called Leviathan and revolves around Shepard and crew looking into to rumors of something called ‘the Leviathan’ that has enough power to take out a Reaper.  The DLC is also supposed to give more info on the Reapers, which I hope isn’t being added in to appease fans that can’t understand them since they were explained more than well enough in the game originally, as well as give players access to new parts of the Citadel.  The M-55 Argus assault rifle and AT-12 Raider shotgun, which were originally pre-order bonuses, will also be included.  The Leviathan DLC pack is planned to be released later this summer for $10 on the PC & PS3 and 800MSP on the 360.  Also for $2 or 160MSP there will be something called the Firefight Weapons Pack that allows for 5 multiplayer weapons to be used in single player as well as two brand new weapons.  Lastly in Mass Effect 3 news the game will be a launch title on the Wii U and will contain bonus content such as the Extended Cut (no official word on whether it will include Leviathan, but hopefully it will) and an interactive back story to catch people up on the series.  I’m betting it will be very similar to the one found on the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 except it will obviously cover the 2^nd game’s story as well, but nothing has been shown of it yet. 

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